It would also likely end the need for thousands of Irish women to travel overseas - mostly to neighboring Britain - for abortions they can't get at home.

"Yes" campaigners had argued that with over 3,000 women travelling to Britain each year for terminations - a right enshrined in a 1992 referendum - and others ordering pills illegally online, abortion was already a reality in Ireland.

"The public have spoken, the result appears to be resounding in favour of repealing the Eighth Amendment, possibly to carry every constituency in the country", Varadkar said on Saturday.

The decision came after a historic vote, in which a landslide majority of the country voted to repeal the country's Eighth amendment, which established an "equal right to life" for mothers and the "unborn", and banned abortion even in cases of rape and incest, or where the pregnancy was a risk to the mother. About 723,000 voters wanted to retain the ban. More than 66 per cent of voters wanted an end to the ban.

He said that for future priests, this rediscovery begins in formation and that seminaries must be harmonious, prayerful, generous and caring places and warn that divisiveness and narcissism are never the signs of the Holy Spirit.

The decisive outcome of the landmark referendum was cast as a historic victory for women's rights. "A lot of other Irish women have had to travel in the same way if they've had to go to the U.K.to access safe abortion".

Exit polls from the Irish Times and broadcaster RTE had suggested the Irish people have voted by almost 70 percent to repeal the Eighth Amendment.

"This is a monumental day for women in Ireland", Orla O'Connor, co-director of the Together for Yes group, said.

Ireland’s pro-life Eighth Amendment appears headed for defeat
John McGuirk, communications director for the " Save the 8th " campaign pushing a "No" vote, reacted to the exit poll on Twitter. The government proposes to allow abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy with later terminations allowed in some cases.

Support came not only from major cities like Dublin but rural areas.

Savita's parents played their part from their home in the Indian town Belgaum, Karnataka, releasing a video appeal to Irish voters last week.

With the vote making newspaper frontpages across the world, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that "Ireland has once again made history".

"I think Theresa May, really as a self-identifying feminist, needs to say: "Yes, I unveil statues of suffragists in Parliament Square, but the test of my feminism will be whether I guarantee fundamental human rights for women". After the vote Friday and exit polls showing overwhelming support for overturning the abortion ban, anti-abortion advocates showed their concern on social media.

Women celebrate the result of yesterday's referendum on liberalizing abortion law, in Dublin, Ireland, May 26, 2018.

Anti-abortion activists conceded defeat early on Saturday and lawmakers who campaigned for a "No" vote said they would not seek to block the government's legislation.

The experience of Sarah Ewart, who travelled to England for an abortion after doctors said her unborn child would not survive outside the womb, was key to instigating the court case.

Mrs Yelagi also told the BBC's Swati Patil: "We are thankful to those who fought the battle for my daughter". Halappanavar requested an abortion at a Galway hospital after a natural miscarriage, but the hospital refused to perform the procedure.

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